2007 Brilliance BS6

Chinese cars are now on sale in Europe, so we go for broke and try one at top speed on a German autobahn.

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Yes, Chinese cars are coming to the U.S. The catch is that no one, not even the Chinese car manufacturers themselves, can provide a clear answer as to when and how. But we wanted to see how a Chinese car fares on real roads-and we wanted to know right now. The opportunity came courtesy of Brilliance Auto, a car manufacturer based in the northeastern Chinese town of Shenyang. If the name Brilliance rings a bell, it's probably because the company has been licensed by BMW to build and sell 3- and 5-series sedans for the Chinese market since late 2003.

Our test drive would not be in some Brilliance-built Bimmer, but in the company's own BS6 sedan (known as the Zhonghua in China). To put the car through its paces, we hit a hectic mix of city streets, country roads, and arrow-straight autobahns in and near Berlin, Germany. Why Berlin? Because Brilliance is the first Chinese manufacturer to take a serious stab at Western auto markets, and distributor HSO Motors Europe has chosen Germany to start its European distribution of the BS6. The smaller BS4 sedan and BC3 coupe arrive later this year; a compact car, dubbed the BS2, and an SUV are in the works, part of a plan to meet an annual sales target of 75,000 cars in Europe by 2010.

Anonymous Applies to the Styling as well as the Driving, but not the Price

Arriving early in the morning at Berlin-Schönefeld airport, we were fortunately met by an HSO representative. That's because the BS6 is the poster child for anonymous styling-finding it in the airport lot would have taken us ages despite the fact that the BS6's lines were penned in the studios of Italdesign-Giugiaro. Our guess is that the job was finished before the morning espresso had gone cold. At 192.1 inches long, the BS6 is about the size of a Toyota Camry. Get ready for a shock, because the price is darn close to a Camry's, too. The BS6 is far from the cut-rate economy car many expected to spearhead China's entry into demanding Western automotive markets. The base 2.0-liter BS6, in Comfort trim, starts at about $26,600 (EUR20,000). The 2.4-liter Deluxe model we tested has an estimated price of $31,000. Yikes.